The sky was a pale, molten gold—radiant and dreamlike.
Beneath it stretched an endless expanse of gentle, rolling earth. Verdant terraces layered the landscape like carved jade.
Crystal-clear streams wove through the hills like living threads of silver, and soft mounds dotted the plains like scattered emerald cushions.
It was springtime eternal—a paradise untouched by war, untainted by time.
A quiet world.
Serene. Deceptively so.
All the more jarring when compared to the frozen, howling white hell just beyond the sealed gate.
This was the Imperial Court Blessed Land—Northern Plains' most sacred sanctuary. A mythical domain that opened once every ten years, bestowing fortune upon the dominant tribe.
Now, it had opened again.
Fang Yuan stood alone.
Though everyone had entered together, the gate had scattered them—each participant thrown into a random sector of the Blessed Land.
It was the same as before. Just as it had been in his past life.
Fang Yuan didn't flinch as his black eyes scanned the golden sky, the gentle hills, the soft wind.
A dreamlike land—meant to lull the naive into reverence. But for him, it was merely a starting point.
There was only one destination worth his attention.
Where the Northern Plains Sacred Palace stood—the former residence of Giant Sun Immortal Venerable.
That was his destination.
Without hesitation, he began to move.
He retraced the steps he had taken in his previous life, cutting through illusions of peace like a knife through silk.
Within days, he found the Sacred Palace—but kept his distance, hidden from view.
But he didn't approach. Just observed.
And then, he waited.
Half a month passed.
Then—The sky rippled.
It was like a drop of water striking a mirror of gold. Gentle at first, then building into waves that shivered across the entire heavens.
The land trembled.
The air shifted.
From the peak of the Sacred Palace, a piercing light exploded outward—bright enough to burn shadows into the ground. Winds surged out of nowhere, spiraling across the utopia like a beast waking from slumber.
For forty-five long minutes, the light endured.
Then, as slowly as it had come, it faded.
And something new stood in its place.
From a barren patch of earth, it rose—like a bamboo shoot breaking soil after rain.
Eighty-Eight True Yang Building.
A tower—tall, slender, unshakably upright.
Its form was hazy, as though drawn in brilliant ink and suspended in air. A silhouette painted in light, trembling with barely restrained power. Its walls shifted with color—glorious, chaotic, otherworldly.
No fanfare. No announcement.
Just the silent birth of a trial that would reshape destinies.
From a distance, Fang Yuan watched.
His eyes didn't widen. His breath didn't quicken.But beneath the still surface of his gaze, thoughts turned like grinding gears.
"It's time!"
With a flicker of light and a subtle twist of space, Fang Yuan vanished from the surface of the Blessed Land.
He reappeared instantly—inside the Eighty-Eight True Yang Building.
Fixed Immortal Travel Gu.Its effect was flawless.His infiltration—silent, surgical, complete.
The air inside the tower hummed with suppressed energy. Pillars of yang essence radiated heat like suns behind silk, ancient mechanisms ticking with immortal age. Fang Yuan walked with calm steps through its hallowed corridors, passing the treasure room without sparing it a glance.
He stopped before the Guest Stele.
Without hesitation, he began.
The refinement process began instantly.
A golden ripple surged through the tower.
"Who dares?!"
A will like the sun erupted in fury, its voice booming with celestial pressure—Giant Sun Immortal Venerable's imprint, ancient and divine, roaring awake from slumber.
But before it could gather strength, it was crushed.
Two Gu worms emerged in Fang Yuan's control—Fortune-Dominating Heaven Gu and Fear Gu. Their power pressed down like cosmic millstones, and in an instant, the will's resistance faltered.
It didn't weaken.It was completely suppressed.
A force beyond its design—a will not of this era—had entered.
The immortal will watched, horrified, as its sanctuary was invaded… defiled… by a man whose aura it could not comprehend.
"You…" it muttered, disbelief cracking through its tone."You're… a Venerable?"
Even the will's own words betrayed its confusion.
It didn't make sense.He shouldn't exist.
And yet, here he was—Fang Yuan—refining what should have been impossible.
He didn't answer.
There was no need.
With one silent motion, Fang Yuan sealed the will of Giant Sun Immortal Venerable—binding it in place like a relic in a tomb.
The tower trembled as the refinement surged forward, no longer contested.
Step by step, Fang Yuan moved toward his final goal.
After forty-eight hours of uninterrupted refinement, the great tower pulsed under his control.
Ninety percent.
That was the threshold Fang Yuan had reached.
With a mere thought, he now commanded the Eighty-Eight True Yang Building.
Space warped at his will.
Movement bent to his intent.
Every formation, every defense, every hidden mechanism—his.
The monstrous construct, once the pride of a Venerable, now responded to a single mind.
His.
A thin smile touched Fang Yuan's lips.
It wasn't joy. It was inevitability.
"Final step," he whispered.
And with that, his figure vanished, reappearing deep within the tower's most sacred vault—The Treasury.
Golden light spilled across countless shelves, each brimming with gu worms of unimaginable value.
Immortal Gu floated in stasis, sealed in crystal light, humming with dormant power.
He raised his hand.
One by one, they disappeared—drawn into his second aperture, absorbed without hesitation. Every single Immortal Gu, including the one that pulsed with a frightening, ancient pressure—
Rank Nine Immortal Gu.
Wisdom Gu.
There was no ceremony, no hesitation.
Only cold, methodical collection.
When the last Gu vanished, he closed his eyes briefly—and willed again.
In an instant, he appeared at the center of the Sacred Palace, his black robes billowing as spatial light coiled around him and then fell away like fading mist.
The air here was still. Heavy. Timeless.
Fang Yuan raised his head. His gaze pierced the heavens.
His body stood still, but everything was moving—power, fate, intention, will.
"It's time," he murmured."To become… a Gu Immortal."
The words carried no drama—only the calm certainty of a man who had walked this path before.
And this time, he would not fail.